For anybody who’s ever raged at feeling yanked around and ripped off by Ticketmaster when trying to buy tickets for a major concert, this must come as welcome news.
In a complaint filed against Ticketmaster and its parent company Live Nation, the FTC says the two companies “deceived artists and consumers by engaging in bait-and-switch pricing through advertising lower prices for tickets than what consumers must pay to purchase tickets.”
And Here Come the big guns
“The Federal Trade Commission and seven states sued Live Nation and Ticketmaster for tacitly coordinating with brokers and allowing them to harvest millions of dollars worth of tickets in the primary market,” reads the FTC’s opening salvo in its September 18 announcement.
“Live Nation and Ticketmaster then sell the illegally harvested tickets at a substantial markup in the secondary market, causing consumers to pay significantly more than the face value of the ticket.”
The FTC filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court of the Central District of California, as reported by the The New York Times, since the two companies are based in California. Seven states joined in with the FTC in suing them.
Don’t forget that the US government approved the merger of Live Nation and Ticketmaster back in 2010, against concerns voiced by some that allowing it would create a company so powerful and dominant in the concert ticket industry that it could pull stunts like this.
“The FTC alleges that these practices violate the FTC Act’s prohibition on deceptive acts or practices in the marketplace and the Better Online Ticket Sales Act,” the FTC said in its announcement.
Negativity surrounding Ticketmaster’s practices surrounded Taylor Swift’s Eras tour, as Axios covered, and Beyoncé’s 2023 Renaissance tour, as The New York Times reported. Forgive the music fans who feel a bit of schadenfreude at the news of the FTC’s lawsuit.
The post The FTC Is Suing Live Nation and Ticketmaster—Here’s Why appeared first on VICE.
